Another local man involved in case arrested for possession of meth

A 29-year-old Juneau resident was arrested Monday on suspicion of possessing narcotics with intent to deliver after law enforcement intercepted a suspicious package in the mail from California, police say.

The U.S. Postal Service thought the package, which was shipped from Inglewood, Calif., in the greater Los Angeles area, was suspicious and intercepted it last week, according to a press release from the Juneau Police Department.

Authorities discovered it contained about 25.7 grams of a substance that field tested positive for heroin and about 112 grams of a substance that field tested positive as methamphetamine, JPD spokesman Lt. David Campbell wrote in the release. Police estimate the heroin has a street value of $25,700, and the meth, $44,800.

Postal inspectors assisted members of the Juneau Police Department drug investigations unit in conducting a controlled delivery of the package on Monday. In an interview, Campbell said that Clinton Russell Konrad, 29, picked up the package from the Mendenhall Post Office at about 4:15 p.m. Monday and left the area with an unnamed 23-year-old woman to meet up with another male. About 20 minutes later, police stopped their vehicles and detained all three people.

The package was recovered from Konrad’s vehicle pursuant to a search warrant, and he was arrested on suspicion of second- and third-degree felony drug misconduct, the release states. One of the charges accounts for the heroin, and the other accounts for the meth, Campbell said.

The other man, identified by police as Patrick Hal Iler, also 29, was not charged in connection to the drug case at hand, but he was found to be in possession of a small amount of methamphetamine while he was being detained. Campbell said in a phone interview Tuesday that Iler had 1.2 grams of a substance that field tested positive for meth in one of his pockets, which prompted police to arrest him for fourth-degree felony drug misconduct. Iler was additionally charged with a misdemeanor for driving with a cancelled license.

The woman was not charged with a crime and was released.

The press release did not say what gave the postal inspectors probable cause to open the package, but that they obtained a search warrant that allowed them to do so.

Before law enforcement delivered the package, police took out most of the drugs and left just a representative sample of each drug inside.

Campbell said the package was addressed to a residence on Stephen Richards Memorial Drive in the Mendenhall Valley. He said he could not go into specifics as to why it was delivered to the post office instead.